Fort Wayne Museum of Art Archives

March 16, 2020 By squirt

Color x Color: The Sperry Poster Archive – New Dates! – Retrospective Book, Poster Releases and Museum Exhibition

Published by Hangar 18
Introductions by Charles Bock and Carlo McCormick,
Afterword by Josef Zimmerman, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Curator of Contemporary Art
Hardback First Edition of 1500
10.5 x 12.875 x 2+ inches
752 pages / index
800+ color illustrations

“Color x Color: The Sperry Poster Archive” illustrates the 40 year career arc of renowned rock poster artist and master screen printer, Chuck Sperry. The 750+ page tome features over 800 color reproductions of Sperry’s work, from his early years creating posters for Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore Auditorium, to his eye-arresting work for The Who, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam, and the Black Keys.

Sperry Introduces each chapter of “Color x Color” with fresh and insightful autobiographical detail, shedding light on his colorful art, life and career. As the artist prefaces his book: “To show you everything, well, that’s exactly what I set out to do two years ago. This book brings together every poster I have created.”

The impetus to create this exhaustively complete book originates with the creation of an extensive special permanent collection of Sperry’s art to enter the archives of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.

“Color x Color” will be first made available at Sperry’s solo retrospective exhibition, “Color x Color: Selections from the Chuck Sperry Archive” at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.

Online sale will follow June events at FWMOA.

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Color X Color: Selections from the Chuck Sperry Archive
April 18-June 7, 2020

**IMPORTANT! Due to COVID-19 guidance from the Centers for Disease control to limit gatherings to 50 people, we are postponing the events of April 17-19 to June 5-7, 2020. Any tickets purchased for April 17-19 events will be transferred to June 5-7.

Fort Wayne Museum of Art has kindly created a spectacular schedule of events for my solo retrospective museum exhibition. Please join us for a series of events that brings together the best of art and music!

Schedule of events for “Color x Color: Selections from the Chuck Sperry Archive” – New event dates are planned as closing events – the exhibition duration will remain: April 18 to June 7

June 5, 6:30pm – Opening and Poster Release

TICKETS FOR THE SALE ARE SOLD OUT – See below to purchase admission-only tickets.

Still want to attend the opening but didn’t get a ticket for the sale? Get admission-only tickets here.

Three brand new original Chuck Sperry designs will be revealed and released at this event (June 5).
(Museum Archive posters – on view at the museum exhibition – will not be for sale)

At this event, celebrate opening night of Chuck Sperry’s retrospective exhibition “Color X Color”, which will feature 150 prints representing the entirety of Sperry’s career. Enjoy appetizers and cash bar.

June 6, 11am – Artist and Curator Panel Discussion
Artist Chuck Sperry, FWMoA Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman, and independent curator and critic Carlo McCormick will speak on Sperry’s life and career. Enjoy a Bloody Mary cash bar.
Tickets Available HERE

June 6, 3pm – Gallery talk with Chuck Sperry and Josef Zimmerman
Included with FWMoA admission. No RSVP required. Enjoy a walking gallery tour of Color X Color with artist Chuck Sperry and Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman.

June 7, 3-4pm – Printmaking Demonstration and Workshop with Chuck Sperry
Learn from the singular figure of psychedelic poster printmaking Chuck Sperry with a hands-on workshop. Fee includes all supplies and your take-home creation.
Sold Out – Thank You!

May 7: Curator’s Tour, 12:15pm
Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman will take you take you on a lively and engaging gallery tour of Color X Color. From specialized and personal points of view, curators offer unique perspectives on all FWMoA exhibits. Free with Museum admission.

February 21, 2020 By squirt

Color x Color: The Sperry Poster Archive – Retrospective Book, Poster Releases and Museum Exhibition

“Color x Color” will be first made available at Sperry’s solo retrospective exhibition, “Color x Color: Selections from the Chuck Sperry Archive” at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.

_________________

Color X Color: Selections from the Chuck Sperry Archive
April 18-June 7, 2020

Schedule of events for “Color x Color: Selections from the Chuck Sperry Archive”

April 17, 6:30pm – Opening and Poster Release

Three brand new original Chuck Sperry designs will be revealed and released at this event (April 17).
(Museum Archive posters – on view at the museum exhibition – will not be for sale)

April 18, 11am – Artist and Curator Panel Discussion
Artist Chuck Sperry, FWMoA Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman, and independent curator and critic Carlo McCormick will speak on Sperry’s life and career. Enjoy a Bloody Mary cash bar.
Tickets Available HERE

April 18, 3pm – Gallery talk with Chuck Sperry and Josef Zimmerman
Included with FWMoA admission. No RSVP required. Enjoy a walking gallery tour of Color X Color with artist Chuck Sperry and Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman.

April 19, 3-4pm – Printmaking Demonstration and Workshop with Chuck Sperry
Learn from the singular figure of psychedelic poster printmaking Chuck Sperry with a hands-on workshop. Fee includes all supplies and your take-home creation.
Tickets Available HERE

November 15, 2019 By squirt

Sperry Career Retrospective at Fort Wayne Museum of Art in April 2020 • The Black Keys SF Poster Reveal

“Legendary poster artist Chuck Sperry is hard at work on his poster for the ‘Lets’ Rock’ Tour stop in San Francisco! You can catch his career retrospective at Fort Wayne Museum of Art in April.” – The Black Keys

Color X Color:
Selections from the Chuck Sperry Archive
April 18 – June 7, 2020

Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Opening events on April 17-19, 2020. Details arriving first week of January 2020.

Chuck Sperry’s illustrious rock poster career has spanned over twenty-five years with no signs of stopping. During that time Sperry has printed thousands of posters for hundreds of bands. He was travelled the world displaying his poster in dive bars to galleries in Europe, New York, and California. Now Sperry’s hard work has brought him to museums.

Fort Wayne Museum of Art is the future home of Sperry’s Archive and we look forward to showcasing 150+ works of Sperry’s.

Archive collected and curated by Josef Zimmerman

Photos: Shaun Roberts

March 19, 2019 By squirt

Fort Wayne Museum of Art Acquires Sperry Tapestry “Demeter” for Permanent Collection

Thank you Fort Wayne Museum of Art for acquiring my large-scale tapestry Demeter for the permanent collection of the museum. I’m thrilled that Demeter will hold a place in the museum’s collection and inspire future generations.

Demeter, 2018
Chuck Sperry
82.7 x 126 inches (210 cm x 320 cm)
Handwoven wool tapestry

Production
Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos

Master Dyer
Rafael Morquecho

Weavers
Antonio Flores
Pedro Ibarra Cazares (aka Solin)
Abraham Flores
Pedro Ibarra Hernandez

Excerpts from “Chthoneon, The Art of Chuck Sperry” — Buy Chthoneon Here

I. The Tapestries

I was naturally drawn to realize my work in tapestry because the medium’s many resonances to my production methods, subject matter and themes. It’s archival permanence also appealed to my aim to seek a balance with the ephemerality of my work on paper.

Historically tapestries have dealt with mythological themes, some of the earliest tapestries being whimsical depictions of Ovid’s Metamorphosis for the titillation of noble classes. I felt it would be interesting to re-envision these same themes in tapestry, reclaiming the divine feminine in a self-empowering way, for a classless milieu that underscores equality and democratic principles. In the 19th Century, William Morris, who championed “Art For All”—an appeal to the “makers” and their democratization of the arts —re-invigorated the ancient art of tapestry, lending me yet another reason to seek out this medium to express my work.

Having encountered the striking beauty of Damián Ortega’s tapestry “Microchip IV” at the Mexican gallery Kurimanzutto at Art Basel in December 2017, I reached out to this tapestry’s producer Jaime Ashida, director of Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos, in early January of 2018 to pursue the realization of two triptychs: Graces and Thesmophoria.

I was attracted by Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos’ use of metallics and the subtle shadings of color apparent in the Ortega tapestry. I intuited that this workshop would take great care to realize my subtle textures, transparencies and uses of metallic patterns. As our discourse unfolded I was struck by the depth of understanding and deep commitment that developed between us in the production of these absolutely masterful tapestries: there is a magic that was stirred from the depths of human compassion and belief.

What has been created in the first year of our joyful collaboration is two-thirds of Graces (Thalia and Semele) and one-third of Thesmophoria (Demeter). Working with the master dyers, weavers, and stitchers of the Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos directed by Jaime Ashida has been a wonderful dream come true.

— Chuck Sperry

II. The Process of Making…

In June of 2018, I visited Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos in Guadalajara, Mexico with photographer Shaun Roberts. I wanted to meet Jaime and the Taller team to celebrate the completion of our work together for my museum solo “All Access” at Fort Wayne Museum of Art. I wanted to see these beautiful tapestries in person (each in various stages of finish), meet the makers, raise a glass, break bread, and bring Shaun to document the colors and textures of Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos in a series of photographs. What follows is Shaun Roberts’ photographic exposé of the mastery and care in the many stages of the intricate, time-consuming, age-old tapestry making process.

— Chuck Sperry

III. Voices of The Workshop: A Triptych

Voice 1: “Chuck managed to decipher the capacity of representation and the possibilities of the particular technique of this tapestry workshop. He observed the textures and colors of the tapestries. The colors, in textiles of the kind, are tactile: it is wool and metallic thread, each color consists of three strands of different shades. I imagine that Chuck must have made an association with the textures achieved in screen printing when it is also combined with acrylic paint and mineral pigments, for example. He talked about the depth of colors, about transparencies, that there is no absolute solid colors, and that there is always a kind of unexpected alchemy taking place. The use of the three different strands for each tone, plus the metallic strands, achieved a richer palette that was evident in the textile translated triptych.

“In collaborative relationships with artists, I like to find those who go as far as possible in the use of the technique and its historical dimension.”

Voice 2: “When I first saw the design of what I would have to weave, I worried a little because I had never done something like that before. I noticed that the metallic finishing was working well and I got excited: it looked amazing! The feeling of tightness in the weaving was palpable, when adding the metal to the mixture of colored wool threads, it hardens and fits naturally in the fabric, that is to say: it helps. The experiment turned out very well and I am proud to have passed the test.”

Voice 3: “The women on the triptych look powerful and full of life, Goddess Creators. They reminded me of the representation of an Amazonian female deity: plenty of bright colors and surrounded by nature under her command to pursue the sake of her people and common causes. We chatted with Chuck about the mythic inversion of stories about female deities and how these goddesses were stripped of many of their attributes in the classic accounts of fundamental myths. Chuck seeks to tell those stories differently, depicting divine and powerful women within his oeuvre. When we said goodbye, the last thing he said was: keep fighting the power.”

— Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos

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American artist Chuck Sperry is known for his ethereal and psychedelically saturated screen prints that draw crowds of dedicated fans around the world. He draws inspiration from graffiti, pop art, Symbolism, Art Nouveau and ukiyo-e.

Moving past his early work devoted to subverting the memes of advertising, trash-culture, and comics — he currently imagines a verdant garden of new work tended by his signature shimmering muses, calling this work a “utopian provocation.”

He has been exhibited throughout The United States and internationally for 25 years, including solo shows in New York, London, Paris, Milan, Rome, Athens, Berlin, Zurich, Geneva, Buenos Aires, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

His work has been featured via the Arte Channel, New York Times, Le Parisien, The Guardian (UK), Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, The Huffington Post, RollingStone, Spin, Architectural Digest, and many more.

He currently lives in San Francisco, California.

November 3, 2018 By squirt

“All Access” Sperry’s Solo Museum Exhibition On View Until December 9. Go See It!

“All Access: Exploring Humanism in the Art of Chuck Sperry” a solo museum exhibition of my work is on view at The Fort Wayne Museum of Art until December 9. I urge you to go and have a look!

The Fort Wayne Museum of Art is located at the intersection of Main Street and Lafayette, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm; Sunday, 12 to 5 pm.

Photos: Shaun Roberts

My exhibition features 3 large scale tapestries I designed, 31 screenprints on oak panel, 18 original ink and pencil drawings, and ephemeral color progressives which illuminate my unique printing process.

“Chuck Sperry came to pre-eminence in the rock poster genre in the late-90’s, and has largely defined the genre in each decade since with his distinctive style and masterful printing technique.” — FWMoA